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FEBRUARY EVENT PT 1
FEBRUARY EVENT PT 1
premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation
→ 2/2 Infodump
- Three weeks have passed in the outside world since everybody had first entered the dungeons, and they exit to find themselves back in Hirajiro. It's quiet, late at night, streets dry around both the house and the clubhouse as they all trudge on home. For the rest of the night, everybody is encouraged to sleep, waking up to breakfast and in the late afternoon on the 2nd, an official team meeting is called. This time, there is no enforcement for people to come or stay, and food will be served after the bulk of the discussion is dealt with. Those who care will take things seriously, and those who don't are free to walk away.
To start, each team shares what went on in each respective dungeon.
(click to expand details) From the castle dungeon:
- ⬥ Room 1: The team finds Rio's, Yamato's, and Kido's omamoris that had been returned to the shrine back on New Years, and allows them to burn.
- ⬥ Room 2: In a war between Hirajiro and a neighboring town, Terry kills a hundred of the other town's soldiers with a single arrow and saves Hirajiro.
- ⬥ Room 3: In the aftermath of the war, the townspeople praise the Kotengu for saving them. They say he came to power half a year ago and can strengthen people and bring them back from the dead. In the offertory box in the forest shrine, Cyrus, Sasuke, and Jiro find a scrap of paper.
- ⬥ Room 4: In the aftermath of the war, Terry, Rei, and Yamato fight through a horde of zombies: the townspeople that Terry killed with his arrows who have been brought back to life- but wrong.
- ⬥ Room 5: In the aftermath of the war, Minato, Nero, and Red help out the remains of the town that attacked Hirajiro. These townspeople blame themselves for attacking and underestimating the Kotengu's strength. Red falls into ego death.
- ⬥ Room 6: In a war between the Kotengu and Daitengu, Hirajiro has been destroyed by active earthquakes and rockslides triggered by the Daitengu after the townspeople decide to side with the Kotengu. The team gathers up the remaining townspeople and bring them to safety at the shrine, where the Kotengu spirits everybody away to safety. Cyrus falls into ego death. Sasuke receives a second scrap of paper.
- ⬥ Final Room: In the boss' chamber, the team is met with the ghosts of all their old teammates lost to ego death and permadeath. Minato fully remembers and explains his contract: he and Souji became Attendants to help their Guests defeat the Daitengu and free to Kotengu, after which the Kotengu will use his powers to bring their team back from death. The Kotengu has the ability to bring people back from the dead and has been doing so for the Persona users. The Daitengu have the ability to shatter people's souls, which is the reason why there are Persona users who permadied and did not revive, and will not reincarnate. To restore these souls, the Attendants planned to use the Kotengu's power to access the Sea of Souls. Sasuke receives a third scrap of paper.
(click to expand details) From the shrine dungeon:
- ⬥ Room 1: In the main hub, the team meets the ghost of a young human boy who runs away and seals half the doors. In the first room, everybody meets doppelgangers of each person in the team, but defeat them and find a fourth scrap of paper in Souji's doppelganger's bag.
- ⬥ Room 2: In modern-day Hirajiro, the townspeople turn against the Persona users and burn down the clubhouse. Jiro and Ala fight through the crowd of townspeople who attack them with torches and farming tools and chase the two until they escape into the forest.
- ⬥ Room 3: During the Kotengu's rise in power, the lake is polluted and turned into a dumping ground for scrap metal and other trash, and only a small handful of people remain who argue against industrialization and the destruction of nature. The townspeople attack and drive away 45, Kido, and the few people who dare to disagree with the Kotengu.
- ⬥ Room 4: During the Kotengu's rise in power, students learn about weaponsmithing and war tactics instead of the usual subjects like math and science. Souji and Iris meet the boy from the hub. He introduces himself as Hiroto, and agrees to lower the barrier in the main hub.
- ⬥ Room 5: During the Kotengu's rise in power, the forest around Hirajiro is being cut down to light iron furnaces for smithing weapons. The forest animals are displaced from their homes, and take refuge in the beginnings of the Kotengu's castle, where Akira, Rio, and Wei Wuxian find a fifth scrap of paper.
- ⬥ Room 6: In modern-day Hirajiro, the team lives out their daily lives believing they are natives to the town, until they pick up on the discrepancies such as the isolation of the town. With brainwashing from the Daitengu, this is the idyllic life they could have, if they choose it over reality.
- ⬥ Final Room: The team meets Miyamoto-no-Yamazaki, who reveals he was originally human and went by the name Hiroto. Daitengu can be born as a Daitengu, as in the case of the previous three Daitengu, or they can be born as a human and turn into one, as in Hiroto's case. In the middle of the discussion, Jiro goes into anaphylactic shock and Hiroto sends everybody out of the dungeon, saying that every time one of them dies and is revived, their soul becomes more and more corrupted. He will reopen the dungeon on the 3rd for the whole team to come back. Jiro falls into ego death.
For the sake of refreshing everybody's memories, Akira and Kido then go over everything they have learned about this world and how it's time to make a decision for how to bring everything to an end.
The Kotengu and Daitengu vied for power in the past, with the Daitengu being guardians of nature and peace and the Kotengu bringing war and advancement. The Kotengu was sealed away but has the power to bring in people from other worlds and make them Persona users. The last group include Minato and Souji, whose entire team was killed except for Minato: he was saved by the Kotengu, and signed a contract promising to lead the new Persona users to kill the Daitengu and free the Kotengu. In return, he and Souji were made into Attendants, and upon completion of the contract, the Kotengu will restore their team's shattered souls and bring them back to life.
Supported by multiple sources, the ofuda door in the castle is their way home. Both teams have been gathering up torn parts of the same ofuda, with five pieces out of six in their possession, and one more piece will complete the last ofuda needed to go home. All the ofudas, complete and incomplete, are given to Akira for safekeeping. As the Kotengu controls the passage, they may be able to open the door and leave without fighting, while the Kotengu is busy fighting the last Daitengu. If they stay and fight the Kotengu as originally planned, however, they must be aware that 1) the Kotengu may be able to seal the omamori he created, and 2) each time somebody is brought back to life by the Kotengu, he corrupts their souls. In the past, Souji and the rest of his team were able to summon their Personas without a medium like Minato's team required, and Souji promises to help figure out the mechanics so they no longer require the omamori. As for the second point... there's already been too many casualties, and it's unclear what corruption means, only that it terrified Hiroto.
Along with whether to kill the Kotengu (somehow) or forge a deal with him, they must decide on what to do with the last Daitengu. If they kill Hiroto, it's hinted that the Daitengu will never truly disappear from the world because humans with high spiritual energy may turn into Daitengu. Souta, the grandson of the occult shop owners, is a prime candidate for this, and the town may never be free of a Daitengu's influence. For those who want to stay in Hirajiro when everything is over, the world may retain its prison system and constantly try to boot any remaining Persona users out unless Hiroto or another Daitengu can rework the system.
And then there's the Sea of Souls, the possibility of bringing everybody back to life— Mondo and Hibiki and Naoya and all the dozens upon dozens of people who were dragged into this war against their will. Shattered souls, corrupted souls, they could all be saved. All this time, ever since they arrived here in the summer, the team battled for their lives and their freedom against the Daitengu and the Kotengu, pledging to kill the fucking birds and forge their own paths. But they need the Kotengu to go home. They need the Daitengu to stay in Hirajiro. It isn't so easy to drop the convictions they've poured so much into already. What shall they do?
Tomorrow, they speak with Hiroto, and make their first decision of whether to work together, or make a stand and fight.
→ 2/3 - 2/29 Around Town
- Outside of the hidden hour, life goes on... Bundled up in coats and scarves, the townspeople flock outside for much of the month, catching up with each other and going shopping together, turning to the Persona users with warm smiles and exclamations that they're glad to see everybody recovered from their illnesses too— they've all been gone for weeks, after all, presumably stuck at home with the sniffles. The patients in the clinic have all started to recover over the past few weeks, with a little garden of medicinal plants started beside the community center now that there is no danger of frost, and construction is already underway to rebuild the hospital building.
For Setsubun on the 3rd, little bags of roasted soybeans and samples of ginger sake for the adults are given out in the marketplace, and at the mountain shrine, priests pass out sweets and small toys and envelopes of money to those who make the trek to the peak. Young men wearing nothing but loincloths parade around the lake before plunging into the freezing water for "purification." Tiny daruma with blank eyes are sold to grant wishes— daruma are so weird: you give the doll the gift of sight by painting in just one eye, write your wish down on its back, and then withhold filling in the other eye until the doll grants your wish through some mystical power. The townspeople believe in this sort of stuff, okay. But none of the townspeople seem to be able to see summoned Personas anymore, and when asked or shown anything out of the ordinary, the townspeople laugh and say you're silly, turning their attention back to the festivities. In the evening, a bonfire is raised by the lakefront with a stage set up next to it for musical performances, historical reenactments and dramas, and dancing all through the night until morning comes with the arrival of spring.
And sure enough, by morning, the snow has all melted, the sun shining brightly in a clear blue sky, though the air is crisp and the nights still get cold. Several townspeople have been hard at work building rowboats, which can be rented to paddle out into the lake, the water so clear one can see several meters into the depths where schools of freshwater fish now swim about, and birds can be seen floating on the surface until a boat comes too close and scares them away. At the community center, a soup kitchen has been set up by a group of volunteers, with hot stews and freshly baked bread served in a large room filled wall to wall with tables and benches, the townspeople enjoying lunches and dinners together with donations going towards the hospital and covering the costs of patients so no one needs to worry about affording treatment. The illness has abated and winter has ended, hope alight on each person's face.
→ MOD NOTES
- ⬥ A lot of the information detailed in the infodump has been repeated ad nauseam over the course of the game, but is presented here for summary and completion, and so all characters will fully understand the situation and can make an informed decision about the ending. The team meeting does not have to the played out unless people are interested or have something they want to discuss.
⬥ The encounter with Hiroto on 2/3 will be threaded out in the toplevel below. Whether Hiroto lives or dies will be determined by the characters volunteering to talk to him, and they will receive the last ofuda piece from him regardless of their decision.
⬥ The townspeople have reverted back to their previously oblivious state regarding Personas or anything supernatural.
⬥ This month, the full moon occurs on 2/8 - 2/10, when Personas are stronger but more difficult to control. This is an optional mechanic.
wc. 2/11
The both of them can be indisposed these past few days, Wei Wuxian getting over his cold and Ala just feeling funky because that's what the full moon does to her. There's not really much she can do in terms of taking care of people— that's more for people like Kido or Souji who would have hot tea with lemon to offer whenever he stops by the Black Cat house or the Velvet Room.
All she has to offer is company, and that's what she does when she spots him outside on the 11th, maybe to take a walk for fresh air while the cold is abating and he can finally breathe through his nose without sneezing every two seconds or having it clogged up with snot. ]
Master Weeeeeeeeii~ Are you feeling any better?
no subject
His chest still feels congested and he still feels exhausted, but at least now he can breathe through his nose without trouble. He'll take what he can get. ]
I'm a lot better! Hopefully it stays that way.
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Humans have weak bodies, so you have to put a lot into taking care of 'em... Are you out taking a walk? Are you going somewhere?
[ If Wei Wuxian doesn't have any plans, Ala's never without them, taking his sleeve pinched in one hand, and with her other she points out towards the lake at the center of town. ]
Have you gone out into the lake yet? It's soooooooo pretty, I bet you'd enjoy just sitting there and seeing everything!
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[ Ah well. Hopefully he'll adjust at some point. ]
I'm mostly just getting fresh air. I didn't have anywhere in mind. [ But the weather is nice, so maybe he'll stay out for a little longer than planned. ]
I went to the lake right after we got out of the dungeon... but I was really drunk so I don't remember much of it, haha! [ It'll be nice to properly look at it in the daylight. ] Why don't we head that way?
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It's a good thing you didn't fall right into the lake!
[ Unless he did. But it's still a different experience during the day, with the sun glittering across the surface of the lake where it catches on the ripples. Ala's only stood on the shore and flown overhead briefly, but she's never been on the rowboat and so she bounds forward towards the couple laid out by the shore for people to take and return. ]
no subject
If I did, it wouldn't be the first time something like that happened.
[ Wei Wuxian can't help but admire the lake and the feeling of familiarity being close to water gives him. It's obviously different, but nice nonetheless.
He follows her to the boat, sitting down and waiting for her to get settled before picking up one of the paddles. ]
I'll do the rowing. I used to do this kind of thing a lot.
no subject
[ Ala climbs in slowly, careful not to rock the boat and tip them over before they even get away from shore, but the boat is well made and the weight's distributed so it's hard to tip, even with her leaning over the edge as soon as they're far enough out to see the fish.
This lake is the largest body of water she's ever seen, and this is the first time she's seen live fish too, reaching out and dipping her hand into the water— pulling it back in surprise because it's cold, even though she should have expected it to be cold— and then trailing her fingers through the water bit by bit as she gets used to the temperature. ]
Hehe... It's so nice out here, you can barely hear everybody else in town.
[ Like a little space away from everything else. ]
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Yeah, I grew up next to a big lotus lake. We would swim in it all the time and eat as many lotus seeds as we could.
[ Wei Wuxian stops momentarily, looking over the lake, and even running his fingers through the water too. Although it's cold, it's nice. He hums in agreement. ]
It is nice. I really should've come out here before now.
no subject
It was a lot different before, did you know? When I first got here, there were warning signs all around the water, saying it's poisonous and made people sick, but now it's all clean.
[ ~*~*magic*~*~
Which in this case it was literally magic, Terry purifying the water by mixing in water from the basin in the shrine. But before that, swimming or being in the water for too long made people really ill, and now look at what it's become: an ice rink for people to skate around during the winter, and a beautiful lake filled with fish after the ice has thawed. ]
Hey, hey, look at this, do you see down there? The chasm all the way at the bottom of the lake?
[ The water's clear enough now to see that the lake's bottom has been split, even from the surface. ]
no subject
[ Not with all the fish that are now here. The thought it used to be like that makes him a little sad.
He puts one of the paddles down, adjusting his position so he can lean over the side of the boat and get a better look, hopefully without tipping it over. ]
What is that?
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[ It was a terrible time for everybody else, but a great time for Ala who liked the rain and wasn't concerned about the flooding— she had no home to worry about, and she can get around fine without the streets. There's no ocean for all the water to drain into, so it all just started piling up and up and up as the rain continued relentlessly, until the lake bottom split and created that space. ]
If the world weren't full of people, I just thought it would've been nice if the flood never went away. The lake would be so big! It would've gone right over the forests and reached the mountains, maybe!
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You really like the water, huh? [ He looks out across the lake. ] A bigger lake wouldn't be bad, but wouldn't it get boring without the forest and mountains?
[ Since they're taking people out of the equation for now, he's just going to focus on that. ]
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[ IT'S THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS except the trees are probably all going to drown. But the mountains will become like islands, and fish are just so new that they're more interesting than land animals at the moment. ]
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[ Not like he does anyway, but still! ]
Having trees above water is nice. I don't think you can really climb up trees underwater. It wouldn't be the same, at least.
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[ It's not the same, and she doesn't typically need to climb trees anyways since she can turn into either a dragon or a crow that can fly.
It's all wishful thinking, though, and this town isn't going to drown no matter how hard she wishes for it, so she turns back to the boat and leans back so she's stretched all the way out, arms up above her head and toes pointed to the other end of the boat, like a cat catching the sunbeam. ]
Mm~ It's not so bad like this, is it? Like that dream from before, the summer dream.
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It is. [ Wei Wuxian looks out across the lake. ] Too bad it was just a dream! At least it was a nice one.
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[ Or stay here, but as far as Ala sees it, there's nothing here worth staying for. ]
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[ He's given up on trying to expect anything at this point. ]
What's Makai?
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Makai is the demon world- there's cities and a society and everything! It's located in the Sea of Souls where I was born, but I've never been... For me, it was just like existing in a void until Shuuya called me here and I came to him, but after all this is over, I don't want to just dissolve back into the Sea and disappear. I want to keep living.
[ And so, the demon world. Like this world, except more real, and also more violent and brutal and scary because everybody are demons. ]
no subject
[ He wonders what that would be like. Probably pretty ruthless. ]
Anyway, I'm glad you want to keep living. You know, I would invite you back to my home if things don't work out in Makai, but I don't know if that'd be possible.
[ He's just glad they can go back at all. ]
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Maybe, but I dunno either~ Depends on if we can convince the Kotengu! It'd be lucky if you could go home at all!
[ She laughs because she can just disappear into the Sea of Souls all on her own, she doesn't need the Kotengu's help for that. Unlike everybody else, she's not bound her to this world and can skedaddle any time she wants. ]